In a speech last week, President Obama presented his plan to accelerate job creation in the nation. The administration also prepared fact sheets that spell out some of the impact that the President’s plan will have in the states. The description of the plan below is taken from the fact sheet for Massachusetts.

Basically the American Jobs Act contains four initiatives: Tax cuts aimed at small business centering on the payroll tax, infrastructure investments to spur the creation of construction jobs, new investment to enhance the unemployment insurance system, and payroll tax relief for individuals.

A little about each initiative:

1. Tax cuts to help America’s small businesses hire and grow

The President’s plan will cut the payroll tax in half to 3.1 percent for employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages below this level. In Massachusetts, 140,000 firms would receive a payroll tax cut under the American Jobs Act.

2. Putting workers back on the job while rebuilding and modernizing America.

The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for highways, transit, rail and aviation, helping to modernize an infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American Society of Civil Engineers while putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers back on the job nationwide. Of the investments for highway and transit modernization projects, the President’s plan would make immediate investments of at least $850,700,000 in Massachusetts that could support a minimum of approximately 11,100 local jobs.

The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and would provide $591,800,000 in funds to Massachusetts to support up to 6,300 educator and first responder jobs.

The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that would modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that would create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. Massachusetts would receive $378,600,000 in funding to support as many as 4,900 jobs.

The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses. Massachusetts could receive about $40,400,000 to revitalize and refurbish local communities, in addition to funds that would be available through a competitive application.

The President’s plan proposes $5 billion of investments for facilities modernization needs at community colleges. Investment in modernizing community colleges fills a key resource gap, and ensures these local, bedrock education institutions have the facilities and equipment to address workforce demands in today’s highly technical and growing fields. Massachusetts could receive $68,800,000 in funding in the next fiscal year for its community colleges.

3. Pathways back to work for Americans looking for jobs.

Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years to help those without jobs transition to the workplace. This could help put the 123,000 long-term unemployed workers in Massachusetts back to work.

Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to extend unemployment insurance, preventing 49,300 people looking for work in Massachusetts from losing their benefits in just the first six weeks. And, across the country, the number saved from losing benefits would triple by the end of the year.

The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. Pathways Back to Work could place 2,500 adults and 9,200 youths in jobs in Massachusetts.

4. Tax relief for every American worker and family

The President’s plan would expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers’ payroll taxes in half next year. A typical household in Massachusetts, with a median income of around $59,000, would receive a tax cut of around $1,830.

The American Jobs Act is being offered for consideration by the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. I think that the intent is to provide an investment component to balance the cost-cutting proposals being presented as the only solution to the nation’s economic challenges.

Clearly, the lack of job creation that is associated with our current “recovery” is distressing to many economists, political leaders and workers. The President’s proposal may be seen as a starting point for those who believe that the federal government can take a more active role to stimulate the jobs component of an economic recovery.